Category: Legal Alert

 

Do you know which extra-EU transactions must be made public through the Approved Publication Arrangements (APAs) as from 3 January 2018 under the MiFID II post-trade transparency?

  

 

 

 

MIFID II still grows in importance and becomes more and more catch-all legislative piece.

 

Its impact is overwhelming also when it comes to cross-border issues.

 

New

ESMA Opinion, Determining third-country trading venues for the purpose of transparency under MiFID II / MiFIR, 31 May 2017, ESMA70-154-165 

Recent examples are:

 

a. OTC bilateral transactions concluded by EU investment firm with non-EU firms, and

 

b. transactions concluded on some third-country trading venues.

 

The European financial regulator confirmed in its opinion of 31 May 2017 that both the above types of transactions are subject the EU mandatory post-trade transparency requirements.

 

It means, the said cross-border transactions must be made public through the Approved Publication Arrangements (APAs) as from 3 January 2018.

 

Clock   

Save the date - 3 January 2018

 

Starting date for the APAs publication of:

 

- transactions concluded on some third country trading venues, and

 

- OTC bilateral transactions concluded by EU investment firms with non-EU firm

  

APAs are persons authorised under the MIFID II to provide the service of publishing trade reports on behalf of investment firms (Article (4)(1)(52) MiFID II and Articles 20 and 21 MiFIR).

 

While the publication of OTC bilateral transactions concluded by EU investment firm with non-EU firms is not subjected by ESMA to other preconditions, the issue of transactions on extra-EU trading venues is more complex.

 

The Annexes to the ESMA's Opinions will be the key documents to verify, and only venues not included therein will be in the APAs' scope.

 

Hence, when the EU investment firm is engaged in trading on third-country trading venues, it must verify whether these venues are listed in the Annex to the ESMA's Opinion, and if this check is positive, APAs do not need to be involved.

 

It is also noteworthy that the said ESMA's list of third-country trading venues plays also an important role in the process of assessing whether contracts on the third-country trading venues should be counted towards the EU position limits regime (ESMA's Opinion of 31 May 2017, Determining third-country trading venues for the purpose of position limits under MiFID II, ESMA70-156-112, for details see Derivatives contracts on extra-EU trading venues at legal risk).